While some areas have been waiting for decades for much promised redevelopment, others have benefited from cutting-edge projects with far-reaching positive impact, representing a Naples that attracts talent, exports models, colonizes instead of being colonized.  

IN THIS VOLUME: Paolo Macry on Naples’ “monarch mayors”?Francesco Abazia on the influence of the US Army’s presence on Neapolitan popular music?Cristina Napolitano on the Neapolitan diaspora, and what it means to come back?Gianni Montieri on the city’s passion for football?Alessandra Coppola on the cult of the young victims of the Camorra, or the police, and much more?

Brimming with intricate research and enduring wonder, The Passenger is a love-letter to global travel.

IN THIS VOLUME, Marco D’Eramo, Nicola Lagioia, Matteo Nucci, and Francesco Piccolo among other Italian writers tell of a city which, despite appearances, slips further down the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities.

To the problems faced by all large capitals, Rome has added a list of calamities of its own: widespread corruption, the resurgence of fascist movements, rampant crime. A seemingly hopeless situation perfectly symbolised by the fact that Rome currently leads the world in the number of self-combusting public buses.

However, if we look closer, this narrative is contradicted by just as many signs that point in the opposite direction. The majority of Romans wouldn’t consider “betraying” their hometown, and the many newcomers are often indistinguishable from the natives in the profound love that binds them to the city, leading to a lack of the mass emigration. Rome is a place of contradictions, yet to understand Rome and “fix” its problems, we should consider it a normal city, “not unlike Chicago or Manchester.” Only, incomparably more beautiful.

Brimming with intricate research and enduring wonder, The Passenger is a love-letter to global travel.

IN THIS VOLUME, Tash Aw, James McAuley, Samar Yazbek, among other French writers tell of the second largest city of Europe.

The radiance of the “city of lights” can be blinding even for tourists: the clash with the real city, so different from the one depicted in films and books, results in some of them developing the so-called “Paris syndrome.” That said, the cracks in the postcard image of the city seem to multiply: terrorist attacks, the demonstrations of the yellow vests, the riots in the suburbs, Notre-Dame in flames, record heatwaves. Meanwhile, soaring living costs are forcing many Parisians to leave the city.

Yet these are not just a series of unfortunate events. They are phenomena-from increasing population density to climate change, from immigration to the repercussions of globalization and geopolitics- that all metropolises in the world must face. And in Paris, today, the mood is not one of defeat but of renewal: from ongoing environmental and urbanistic transformation to the children of immigrants who take to the streets for the right to feel French, and the women determined to break the sexism and stereotypes that dominate the fashion industry. Is there anyone who seriously thinks they can teach Parisians how to stage a revolution?